


The New Fashion

by middleearthquake



Category: Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-29
Updated: 2016-01-29
Packaged: 2018-05-17 01:05:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5847874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/middleearthquake/pseuds/middleearthquake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>honey, all you need are looks and a whole lot of money</p>
            </blockquote>





	The New Fashion

**Author's Note:**

> ...so remember when everyone was like George Lucas, nobody wants SPACE ECONOMICS, that's BORING, we want STAR WARS? 
> 
> yeah. um. BUT consider: anakin skywalker, slave from backwoods nowhere. luke skywalker, dirt-poor farm boy from backwoods nowhere. rey with no family, also from backwoods nowhere. all of them running into Space Princesses padme amidala and leia organa and poe dameron. basically: stars wars and economics, but the economics of billy joel and bruce springsteen. 
> 
> I am absolutely not the first person to consider these ideas, so this is mostly just headcanons i am writing because i have a lot of feelings about these characters.

Padme Amidala drove them aboard the ship. 

In that moment, wading through grief like deep water, Obi-Wan barely had presence of mind to assure himself that the child was fed. Padme's handmaidens bathed it and dressed it. 

 

**

 

On Coruscant, Obi-Wan told the council that he wasn't ready to accept a padawan. He looked Master Yoda himself straight in the face and spoke of his grief, his shattering grief and fear, and how inappropriate it would be to attempt instruction of a youngling. I cannot be anyone's example, Obi-wan said. 

It is unwise. 

Master Yoda did not directly address the lies that Obi-wan told, but when the council had finished deliberating, Anakin became Obi-wan's padawan and responsibility. 

**

On the ship, headed back to Coruscant, the child had approached Obi-wan. 

“You called Qui-Gonn Master,” the boy said. He did this; Obi-wan had the vague impression that younglings grew out of the habit of appearing suddenly and starting inappropriate conversations. He certainly couldn't remember a time in his life when he'd ever behaved like that. 

“Yes,” Obi-wan said, thinking _and I have no master now; who will guide me? Oh, I am not ready, I am not prepared; I cannot be responsible for this child. No matter how the Force flows through him, he's old, he's too old, and how could Master Jinn throw his life away for a slave from Tatooine?_

“He's dead, now.”

“Yes,” Obi-wan said. Anakin flinched. 

No one had heard of a child like this before, a child born of the living force. ( _Such_ a lie, a superstitious lie, and one that Qui-Gonn had died for, was it any wonder that Obi-wan had not yet found his balance? But superstition or no, Anakin himself showed all aspects of an untrained and extremely empathetic force-sensitive. It was cruelty itself, to allow Obi-wan's personal opinions to affect the boy.) 

“So you could...leave,” Anakin said. It was such a strange thing to say. The boy's presence in the force tangled in fear. Obi-wan's shoulders tightened sympathetically. That disturbed him. He'd met younglings before, in the Temple, but none of them with the strength to affect his own emotions. None with the sheer power that Anakin possessed, however he came by it; Obi-wan already felt like a ship caught in the gravity of this strange child's power. 

“ _What_?” 

The nervous energy simmering through the Force erupted. 

“You could leave! Padme's the only other person who knows you made it out alive, and she doesn't – she wouldn't follow us, I think. You could take me with you, I'm small and I don't eat a lot and I'm good with ships, you know that, you could leave, you could go somewhere nobody even knows that you _had_ a master.” His anxiety ratcheted up in the face of Obi-wan's shock; the faster Anakin spoke, the thicker his accent grew. He was poleaxed; it had never occurred to him that _such_ a conclusion might be reached, that the relationship between _master and student_ might be mistaken for such an – an abomination. Every other world they'd visited, every being they'd encountered, they'd all _known_ enough of the Jedi to understand. “We could -” he faltered. “We could take Threepio, even.” 

Obi-wan found himself angry, angrier than was right or proper. 

“Well,” he began. “You don't understand, it's not -” 

“ - I mean, nevermind,” the boy said, hurriedly, already backing away. His eyes shone wide and terrified, above his smile. “It was a joke! I got you, didn't I, you really thought – I _like_ it here, I want to go with you. And see – and meet your masters.”

“Anakin,” he tried; it seemed...unwise...to attempt to touch the boy, but this misunderstanding must not continue. “Qui-gonn didn't... _own_ me. He was my _friend_.” 

“, no no,” Anakin agreed. He seemed unaware that he'd switched languages more than once. “No no, of course not, I – I think I hear Padme calling me!” 

“Anakin!” Obi-wan shouted. The boy didn't pause in his mad rush to escape Obi-wan, however, and it seemed – what could be said? How could _he_ explain, what words could be used to make a _nine year old_ youngling understand the great and glorious tradition of the Jedi? _I cannot do this, Master_ , he thought. _how can I do this without your guidance? How can I train a child when I can't muster the words to explain my place in his life?_

 

***

 

Later, he found Anakin in Padme's quarters. The Queen had draped herself in a fine, shimmering robe of violet and red, her hair pinned into an elaborate mass of braided curls that stood a full ten inches above that lovely face. "Like this," she said, as she nodded a greeting to Obi-wan. "Don't hold them too tightly, you'll lose control. Lift the food to your mouth. Relax your hand; guide the chopsticks - there! See! Much better!" 

"I'll never get it _ever_ ," Anakin moaned. It was true that he held the chopsticks a little clumsily, but Obi-wan couldn't see any evidence that he'd dropped anything yet. 

"You're learning it much faster than I did, when I was your age," one of Padme's handmaidens observed, smiling as gentle and beautiful as a dove. 

"Really? You _really_ think so? - but you're a fine lady! Really?" 

"Oh yes," she said. "You're a natural! A little practice and no one will be able to tell you haven't been doing this for years, Ani." 

The Queen regarded Obi-wan in the door, levelly; there was something even and calculating in her eyes. Obi-wan felt the first rush of shame. It might've been guilt, but he thought not. He thought it very likely that the young queen had some idea of why Anakin had run from him earlier that day. 

"Come in, Master Jedi," she said. "We are practicing our manners, tonight; I believe it is good to practice."

"I'm no one's master," he said. 

She inclined her head. "And your manners are very pretty. Come eat with us, then." 

Anakin and her handmaiden had their heads together; it made a pretty picture, the woman with her long dark hair draped across Anakin's shoulder as he whispered in her ear. 

"What is it, Ani?" the queen asked. 

He pulled back, blushing, blue eyes wide and sparkling with mischief. "Nothing, lady," he said. 

"It's all right, Ani," her handmaiden murmured. "I tell my queen all of _my_ secrets; she keeps them all faithfully for me."

"You _do_?" and he looked stunned, a little confused. 

_This slave-child will not understand,_ Obi-wan thought. He braced himself for another misunderstanding. 

"She may keep whatever secrets she pleases," the queen said. "But she knows all of mine, so sometimes she tells me hers."

"Ohhhhhh."

"May I? - we were saying, my lady, that keff reminds us both of _eduine_. I ate it as a little girl, not much bigger than Ani, and he was just telling me how his mother prepared it."

"I didn't know _you_ knew about it, though!" Anakin said. 

Obi-wan interjected here, for the Queen's benefit: "it's an invasive species," he muttered, softly. "A nutrient-rich insect that flourishes on nearly every planet it's ever accidentally been dropped on; it functions as a source of protein for many impoverished communities across the galaxy. It's why efforts to wipe it out haven't ever really worked."

Anakin dropped back on his heels, and stared hard at the little low table in front of him. He lined his chopsticks up very carefully along his bowl. "I'm not very hungry any more," he said, in a small voice. 

Padme laughed out loud. "I know it!" she said. "The first time I tried one, I ate the head - and I was in front of a great many important people, so I couldn't spit it out again!"

"You _what _?" Anakin grinned up at her, on the verge of laughter already. "How did you keep it from _biting_ , you can't ever eat the heads! Ma'am."__

__"It bit me twice," she said, ruefully. Her cheeks had gone has pink as his. "It was a good lesson, though! Have you tried them, Master Kenobi?"_ _

__"No," he said, slowly, and watched as Anakin began to explain the proper way to roast them to the Queen of Naboo, his face alight with joy._ _

**Author's Note:**

> ...let it be known I don't actually hate Obi-wan, but my general impression is that. uh. of everyone, the Jedi were probably The Worst people to try to adopt the incredibly powerful slave kid, and "we have no possessions and no emotions" is probaby The Worst philosophy to impress on a former slave, y'know?


End file.
